JCB to create 600 jobs as world orders roll in

Growing global demand is driving the creation of 600 new manufacturing jobs at the digger maker JCB.

The new roles in areas including welding, paint-sprayeing and assembly pay a minimum of £10.40 an hour, with a premium for shiftwork.

A third of the temporary roles at the Staffordshire-based construction equipment company will be available to apply for immediately. The rest will be available over the next 12 weeks for production lines in Rocester, Cheadle and Rugeley in Staffordshire and in Foston, Derbyshire.

There are also more than 100 vacancies at JCB’s headquarters. The company’s chief operating officer, Mark Turner, said that while the new roles were for temporary staff hired through an employment agency, the manufacturer was looking long term and had this year already moved 200 temporary hires to permanent contracts.

Announcing the jobs, he said: “This is great news for the local economy and great news for anyone seeking to work with a globally successful business. We know the cities of Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and surrounding towns have people with the skills we need, and in return they can expect excellent rewards.”

He added: “The future is very bright for JCB as global demand for our machines continues to grow, which means great prospects for people who want to work with us.”

JCB is one of Britain’s biggest private companies, employing about 12,000 people and exporting to 150 countries. Its chairman, Lord Bamford, was a vocal campaigner for Brexit in the run up to the 2016 EU referendum, writing to his company’s 6,500 employees in the UK shortly before the vote arguing he was “very confident that we can stand on our own two feet”.

Later in 2016, after the vote in favour of leaving the EU, JBC quit the CBI over the business lobbying group’s anti-Brexit stance.

In 2015, Bamford told the BBC the UK “could negotiate as our own country rather than being one of 28 nations in Brussels as we are today” if it left the EU.